Sunday, April 16, 2006

Semana Santa

Jumping from one major holiday to another, we have arrived at Easter. In Spanish speaking Catholic countries, this week is called Semana Santa, or Holy Week. In my town, Rica Playa, it is not only a time for family and Catholicism, it is also a time to dig up beliefs of the antiguas, or the ancestors, and look for gold. The people believe that pots of gold rise up from the ground on Good Friday. They also talk about how...

If you take a bath, you will turn into a fish or mermaid.
If you cut down a tree, it will bleed.


Apparently, what we call the man in the moon is actually a boy who disobeyed this custom. He chopped down a tree for firewood on Good Friday and was sent up to the moon as punishment. He is there now, forever fastened in the sky with his ax and tree on the face of the moon.